Hatch: I’ll vote yes on immigration reform

posted at 9:21 am on June 25, 2013 by Ed Morrissey

This may count as a mild surprise, at least in Utah. Orrin Hatch opposed the original 1986 amnesty bill, which passed over his objections, and the 2007 immigration-reform effort that sank into failure. Hatch has decided to support the current effort, he explains in a column for the Salt Lake Tribune, because this bill addresses the border-security problems the other two bills ignored, even if not exactly how he would have done it himself:

Is this legislation perfect or what I would have drafted? Absolutely not. But as it stands now, the Senate immigration bill makes sure that these 11 million people are paying into society, and fixes many of the pressing issues associated with our broken immigration system.

That’s why I will vote for it this week.

This legislation significantly strengthens border security. An amendment by my colleagues Sens. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., means that an additional 20,000 Border Patrol agents will be stationed along the southern border, more than doubling the current force.

It also requires that an additional 700 miles of fencing be built and that E-verify — an Internet-based system that ensures that employers hire only legal workers — be used by all businesses in the country, making it virtually impossible to work in the United States illegally.

Hatch rejects the claim that this bill is an amnesty package:

Some have said this bill grants amnesty, but that’s just not true. We have de facto amnesty right now, and this bill fixes that. The fact is that in order to be put on a pathway to citizenship, immigrants currently here illegally would be required to pay a fine, pass criminal and national security background checks and pay taxes.

Only after at least 10 years have passed and all five of these so-called “triggers” have been fully implemented can an illegal immigrant even apply for a green card. That’s hardly amnesty.

His Utah GOP colleague, Sen. Mike Lee, hasn’t called it amnesty, either, but he says the legislation is still too easy on lawbreakers.

Lee will oppose the bill when the Senate votes, saying Congress should tackle this issue in pieces, starting with the border and ending with what to do with the undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.

Hatch’s move began a few weeks ago, when he began pressing the Gang of Eight to toughen the border security provisions and get tougher on back taxes. Five weeks ago, the New York Times profiled Hatch’s growing influence on the direction of the bill, as the Go8 tried to build a wide coalition to pressure the House into action:

Members of the bipartisan group of eight senators who drafted an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws see Mr. Hatch as a potentially influential partner. He was an original co-sponsor of the Dream Act for younger immigrants and has shown a willingness to embrace other immigration legislation as well. Though he ran to the right during a primary challenge in the 2012 election, they believe he might be brought back into the fold now that he is safely ensconced in his seventh Senate term.

“Senator Hatch is somebody who understands these issues well, has a long history, and it would very valuable to have him support our bill, both in committee and on the floor,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and a member of the bipartisan group, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee with Mr. Hatch.

In an effort to increase Mr. Hatch’s investment in the legislation, Mr. Schumer and other members of the bipartisan group on Monday threw their support behind a Hatch initiative to begin collecting biometric information like fingerprints at airports to register immigrants when they leave the country.

With the exception of two Republican members of the bipartisan group who also sit on the Judiciary Committee — Senators Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — Mr. Hatch is considered the other Republican member most likely to support the bill, which would give it some conservative gravitas as it heads to the Senate floor.

The biometric provisions made it into the final version of the bill, but a couple of other demands did not. Hatch wanted a delay on ObamaCare benefits for the normalization group, and also wanted a tougher approach on back taxes, both of which the Go8 refused. They did agree to block Social Security benefits during the normalization period and requirements to keep those without permanent residency from accessing welfare benefits, under pressure from Hatch.

The big question will be whether Hatch’s support puts more pressure on the House. The Senate will pass this bill soon enough, but the House leadership is more inclined to follow Mike Lee’s strategy.

Blowback

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He changed his tune after Bennett of Utah got “primaried” but only to get more campaign loot and his crooked ass put back into the Beltway.

Hatch fits into the same category as Arlen Specter and Lugar. They’ve been in DC far too long, think the People serve them, and would sell their souls a million times over to keep getting invitations within the Beltway cocktail party circuit.

This clown whore Hatch needs to be recalled just like McVain, Flake, and the various other vermin who turncoat for an ego trip as much as the thrill of deceiving their base.

The old saying “Don’t count your Hatch until he chickens” needs to be made obsolete by shipping this fossilized friend of Chappy Kennedy back to some red-light district in Salt Lake City where he can feel at home amongst fellow, er, professionals.

The entire rush to pass bills which purport to solve a problem without allowing for the public’s scrutiny and a factual conversation leads us one more step closer to tyranny.

Mr. Hatch is either a fool or a petty despot. No congressman has read the entirety of this bill, nor do they understand the breadth of its implications- which we are finding each day are disastrous.

There is nothing in this issue which cannot be solved with separate bills targeting specific issues. Notwithstanding that one of the main jobs our government has is to protect their populace, a duty they have now seemingly left for negotiation, the focus of Congress should be on the voters who elected them, not citizens of other countries within our borders illegally.

This will be the coup de grace for Republicans. Not only will they fail to take a majority in the senate, the party will lose members and the next presidential election. They no longer have a set of distinctive principles and represent a lite version of Democrats.

How that repeal of Obamacare, which is crushing people with expenses and destroying our healthcare system going Mr. Boehner and McConnell? Oh, lost in your rush to take care of people that can’t even vote?

Goes to show you just can’t trust any Republican when they are campaigning.

Barred on June 25, 2013 at 10:16 AM

That is why I hold the Republican Party responsible for the destruction of America. The Dems have told us what the dream of and want to do. The Republicans have lied and then led the Dems to their Utopia.

This is pointless. Let’s quit wasting time. Let it burn as soon as possible. Open the borders wide, then start printing money as fast as possible. A couple hundred of those Trillion dollar coins should do to get us to 2017.

Were these politicians always planning on voting against the will of their constituency? Or, is there really something nefarious about Washington that changes them to the point they willfully and gladly thwart said constituency?

It is just so disheartening. Even more so, the establishment seems content with undermining those that keep them in power.

All the big donors and the Bush network (which is massive) will line up behind Rubio, as planned, with Jeb being selected as his running mate. The Bush Legacy endures and George P. Bush in Texas will have his dad in Washington keeping the donors and power networks humming.

His lackluster performance against Slow Joe Biden in the debates had me wondering just how much their political philosophies (beneath Ryan’s network hair / pasted on smile veneer) actually differed. Now we know. These clowns get to DC on lofty promises and sloganeering only to be similarly lazy, deceptive and destructive as Ogabe himself.

There’s a couple things that might happen. I think it’ll fail in the House easily. From there, the media will try to put pressure on the public to see it as anti-minority to swing the 2014 elections in the House. If we maintain or gain seats, I think the US has a chance still to recover from the Obama years. If the American People really buy the crap and punish the GOP for not passing amnesty, then I think you really can write us off. I don’t see how you could recovery from the influx of new voters and the Democrats in complete control.

I sent Hatch’s office a message telling him how disgusted I am with him. Cruz says it really does make a difference when you light up your senator’s phone lines with your opinions, but I think that it doesn’t work on dinosaurs like Hatch. Let’s face it, the man has been a senator since I was 5 years old. Now I’m 41. He needs to go.

And we only have 5 more years to look forward to Hatch’s continuance of stabbing us in the back. Thanks pundits for touting this guy’s “rock-ribbed conservatism”, ha. At least Levin had the guts to apologize for supporting this clown.

This will be a done deal within a month. God help places like San Diego, Tucson, Phoenix, El Paso, Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Laredo, Brownsville.

I hope the FEMA and other Federal agencies are actively staging food and water supplies to stave off the massive death toll from starving dehydrated immigrants, who we’ve promised everything to and can deliver nothing to.

You could ignore (and most of our ‘lawmakers’ have) every minute and minutae of this bill and STILL know that it is very bad medicine for our country if for no other reason than Chuck Schumer cannot stop grinning about it.

If you’re too dumb to figure this out you should NEVER be allowed to hold public office of any kind.

The problem I have is with the hype and misinformation on both sides of the issue.

1. Net migration of illegals across the Mexican border is currently about zero. We have just about as many illegals going home across that border as arrive.

2. What we are seeing is a replacement of illegals. Illegal aliens are becoming less Latino and more Asian.

3. About 50% of illegal aliens come into the US on a valid visa. They don’t sneak across any border. They just don’t leave when their visa expires.

You can turn the border into a Berlin Wall and it won’t change the rate of illegal immigration.

We have anywhere between 8 and 11 million workers here that are not supposed to be here but are here nonetheless depending on whose numbers you believe. From 2007 to 2011 that number declined by about 1 million and is believed to be continuing to decline slightly as more people from Mexico migrate out of the US back home where there is faster economic growth and less unemployment.

The people are here are having kids. Those kids are 100% American citizens with the same right to vote as anyone else. How we treat their parents is an emotional hot button issue. Heck, many of them have grandkids by now.

Of the number that this legislation would give resident status to, some portion will likely decide to become citizens but probably not even half of them. Once they have legal residency, that is probably all most of them need/want.

The notion that doing this would create a “permanent Democrat majority” is not borne out by the facts. If you look at the states with the greatest numbers of Latino voters, the majority of those states have Republican governors. States such as Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, and Florida are cases in point. The areas with the largest Latino working population in California are also the areas with the largest Republican majorities. That doesn’t hold for the urban welfare communities, though.

We do need to do something. The answer probably lies somewhere between the far right hair on fire “NO AMNESTY!!1!” position and the far left “open border” position.

What I would support is an approach that takes things in bite-sized chunks rather than one comprehensive bill. Lets get the folks that are already here working fully above board. That benefits everyone. Then for people who have been here for a long time, been good members of their community and not a burden on their neighbors, let them START on a path to citizenship. For those who have served honorably in our armed services, let them become citizens, too.

But please, stop the running around in circles waiving the arms with the “Rubio is a dirty RINO” crap. It looks ridiculous.

This is pointless. Let’s quit wasting time. Let it burn as soon as possible. Open the borders wide, then start printing money as fast as possible. A couple hundred of those Trillion dollar coins should do to get us to 2017.

oldroy on June 25, 2013 at 10:25 AM

Hell yes. Don’t even worry about the “securing the border” kabuki these aholes are yammering about, dissolve the Border Patrol and reassign them to a new government agency called the Border Candy Stripers. Their new mission is to make sure that every border-jumper is greeted with cookies, juice, new clothing, and a generous expense account to get them started in their new nation.

I’m serious about this, open the borders and invite everyone in, I want these leftist Kumbaya douchebags to feel the full weight of what they have been clamoring for, and I hope they get bulldozed with the goodness of it all.

Hell yes. Don’t even worry about the “securing the border” kabuki these aholes are yammering about, dissolve the Border Patrol and reassign them to a new government agency called the Border Candy Stripers. Their new mission is to make sure that every border-jumper is greeted with cookies, juice, new clothing, and a generous expense account to get them started in their new nation.

I’m serious about this, open the borders and invite everyone in, I want these leftist Kumbaya douchebags to feel the full weight of what they have been clamoring for, and I hope they get bulldozed with the goodness of it all.

Bishop on June 25, 2013 at 10:40 AM

You forgot the car. They need a car. Maybe we could do like NYC does with their Bicycle program. Just take one when you find it, and leave it with the keys in it and enough gas to get to the station.

If you’re too dumb to figure this out you should NEVER be allowed to hold public office of any kind.

Hatch, Rubio, Ryan, Ayotte, I’m talking to you here.

CaptFlood on June 25, 2013 at 10:34 AM

Unfortunately Quislings like Hatch, Ryan etc. aren’t dumb.

They’re clever. Much like a goat which can figure out how to open a gate after staring at it year after year. Hatch, Ryan etc. are like so many goats wandering about the green (as in money) pasturage of the fancy offices, limo rides and expense accounts that the Constitutional gate they’ve been staring at for decades become the gate they must breach to liberate themselves from the constraints of The People.

I’m serious about this, open the borders and invite everyone in, I want these leftist Kumbaya douchebags to feel the full weight of what they have been clamoring for, and I hope they get bulldozed with the goodness of it all.

Bishop on June 25, 2013 at 10:40 AM

Soup lines and internment camps. And the news will report it as evidence of Republican anger, resentment, jealousy, and racism.

Of the number that this legislation would give resident status to, some portion will likely decide to become citizens but probably not even half of them. Once they have legal residency, that is probably all most of them need/want.

Semantics. They will still be allowed to acquire the full panoply of citizenship, from SS to medicare to voting; legal residency is simply citizenship by another name.

These people will be bought and everyone knows it, no use denying the facts, and with unassailable majorities in Congress the demorats will then do what they have always done, turn around and erase all the laws they passed before to make it seem as if they were being border hawks. Those “legal residency” folks will be given citizenship on a silver platter.

Any Mexican can bring his 60-or-over parents and grandparents here, they can immediately go on welfare, Obamaphones, subsidized housing, Food Stamps, and Medicaid, and stay on for the rest of their lives.

Anyone that’s ‘taking care of a child’, in other words anyone with children, ditto.

Really? So after this bill is passed, there will be zero tolerance for illegal immigration? Anyone caught in the country illegally will be deported? No more social services for people in the country illegally? No more opportunity to work if you do not have papers allowing you to work here? No more sanctuary cities? All sworn peace officers required to assist in enforcing federal immigration law?

And most importantly, no more politicians ignoring the laws they choose not to enforce?

Selling out our country for a few dollars more in taxes. Is congress going to reform the tax code to include low income earners? Otherwise, these new legal tax payers won’t be paying anything and will get a refund check from us.

You forgot the car. They need a car. Maybe we could do like NYC does with their Bicycle program. Just take one when you find it, and leave it with the keys in it and enough gas to get to the station.

oldroy on June 25, 2013 at 10:42 AM

You’re joking, but there actually IS a provision in the amnesty bill to provide taxpayer-funded transportation (cars, scooters, etc.) to young amnestied illegal aliens to help them get to jobs. (Not kidding).

Anyone who did not know that Hatch was a lying POS before this has not been paying attention. He, like all good RINOS, act like they are conservatives to get elected. Conservatives have to be the dumbest people on earth because we keep on voting for these b@stards. You know it’s true. We are dumb as a rock. How else do you explain Rubio, Brown, Graham,
Hatch, Ayette, Cornyn, Alexander,Ryan,Boehner,McConnell,Bush,and a host of others too numerous to mention. We, the conservative base have put these traitors in office, yr. after yr., decade after decade while they think we are a bunch of hayseeds lower than crap. Yes, they were happy to see the IRS target us. They are happy to see the NSA abuse the 4th amendment. They knew what was going on and were too cowardly to speak out. It took a young man, Snowden, to give up everything he has, including possibly his life, to warn us, while the ahole politicians knew but were too cowardly to warn us. To hell with them all.

If conservatives were smart, which they are not, we’d boycott every liberal thing in this country. Do no business with any one who supports dems.

Here’s a pipe dream. How about the disgruntled population of mexico make demands of their own dirty corrupt government so they wouldn’t have to come here and make demands of our dirty corrupt goverment. If they really had any national pride they’d start a revolution to make their own country habitable and prosperous. oh look a unicorn!

REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS: This is not rocket science. Read the legislation.

Just note where and how often the bill allows the Director of Homeland Security or the Secretary of HHS, etc. to waive the provisions of the bill. On border security, on fines, on past illegal activities, on access to benefits, on enforcement of immigration law, etc.

Now look me in the eye and tell me how many provisions of the bill will be enforced the way you claim they will? That’s what I thought.

Have none of you learned the lessons of past amnesty bills? Or Obamacare? Sheesh!

Adding 20,000 more Border Patrol Agents is NOT the same thing as securing the border.

Previous legislation dictated building a fence….which has STILL not been completed.

Just because you mandate hiring 20,000 new BPAs being hired, a fence being built, etc doesn’t mean the Govenrment can’t cut funding for those pieces of the bill after it is passed.

Although the bill states Illegals can’t receive benefits for 7 – 10 years, Democrats have already started laying the groundwork for repealing that mandated delay, citing that causing Illegals to wait that long while remaining in the US cause them HARDSHIP! The bill has not even been passed yet, and already Liberals are trying to strip the meat out of the bill in order to give all the tax payer-funded benefits while they wait to become citizens!

Of the number that this legislation would give resident status to, some portion will likely decide to become citizens but probably not even half of them. Once they have legal residency, that is probably all most of them need/want.

None of them have legal status or citizenship now, yet they are able to influence the political process to get what they want. Imagine how much influence they will have once they are “out of the shadows”. Caving to blackmail will only result in more blackmail.

Although he had once submitted a national healthcare bill himself, he ran against obamacare in his re election. Guess he forgot to mention his evolution on amnesty in his primary against a tea party candidate, who had to mostly self fundFollow the money

In all, Liljenquist has raised $778,363 in his effort to unseat six-term GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch. As of June 6, Liljenquist had spent $613,608 and had $163,725 on hand.

Hatch, meantime, has raised and spent more than 10 times that since being re-elected in 2006. From January 2007 to June 2012, he has raked in $10.5 million, including $3.9 million in PAC money, according to his FEC report. He spent nearly $2 million in the past two months alone and currently has about $1.9 million in the bank.

I remember him on Levin show, talking about the importance of retaining his seniority in the Senate. Which he has used to facilitate amnesty05-21-13 on the amnesty bill

“If they can get people like me on the bill — not that I’m that important — but if they can get people like me on the bill, who really would do their best to get it through, it would be good for our country.

Guess he forgot to tell Levin that, when he came hat in hand begging on the radio. Meanwhile from the 5-21-13 article:

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Hatch have an ongoing dialogue on these issues, one of the senator’s aides said. A Facebook representative declined to discuss their private talks.

The lame duck no longer pretends
You believe the line they would give a $2000 (obamacare) leg up on low skill jobs to another 10-20 million, plus welfare, pardons, tuition, and import gay lovers to boot, just to get a hundred K or two of high skill visas?

This was all planned a long long time ago, and many plants were installed to get to this point. The Republican party took off the mask this week. Z is for Zuckerberg V is for Vendetta

Useful to have the guys who track your every move – even without the NSA – on your side

Hatch makes me ill. He is the poster boy for the lying, two faced, politically expedient, RINO, coward, that is the problem in DC.

Correct me if im wrong, but didnt he spend every bit of energy his crooked little body could muster, doing the rounds on conservative media claiming to be a “tea party” Senator? Didnt he claim to be a conservative stalwart and promise to keep to those values.

Think that Hatch, McCain, Graham, McConnell or any of the other Trotsky Repubs were worried about the IRS take down of the TEA Party?
el Vaquero on June 25, 2013 at 2:42 PM7487

Do you not think a political party would normally care that one of its most activist components was being kept out of the campaign? Had they wanted high tea party participation in 2012, they would have pushed for hearings just before the election, to create election scandal and energize the base

Instead, Party sat on it during the election. Did not even care after the election

Imagine hearings on Tea Party abuse before the election. Might have gotten more tea party voted in, and they had an amnesty to ram through this year – see Orin Hatch

What was the mantra on right and left: that the election proved the tea party was dead, and hated by average americans. That was used to deflate the movement

Hatch is kind of the new Arlen Specter, so useful in the amnesty strategy he was well worth protecting in his re election – which carefully focused on Obamacare, not Immigration

Conservatives are busy using those two words to give Traitors like Rubio and others cover on selling out this nations borders so the new slaves of the Ruling Class can be tapped for paying taxes……..after THEY refused to seal the border since 1986.

In 1986 we passed a bill for 1.3 million people who had come since 1968.

then we got a flood of new people knowing they’d eventually get legalized.

NOW we must teach the next generation of “world citizens’ that if they too come here; we’ll reward them for violating our laws… we must teach each new generation that the US border laws have no value.

Otherwise… something bad happens, I’m not sure what.
But we must keep rewarding those who violate the law.

Just think in 20-30 years we could have another 50-60 million illegals as we keep getting more every time we do this… won’t that be great? Another serious number of illegals forced to live in the shadows… because we’ll keep showing them if they come we’ll reward them.